I have my doubts about the closure of Liberty Reserve. It is widely reported to have had 1 million users. I am not yet convinced that a higher percentage of these were criminals, than is true in much of the mainstream banking system. I have been told by an email – which I cannot currently verify – that of the US $6 billion processed through Liberty Reserve, only US$20 million has to date been seized as the proceeds of crime.
It seems to me that a public sickened by the massive charges of bankers for simple intermediary services, will increasingly look for means to exchange value outwith the formal banking sector using modern technology. Services like Western Union are dreadfully overpriced, and make massive profits on home transfers by poor immigrant workers worldwide. It is getting increasingly hard to despatch money as physical cash by a friend. Carrying large quantities of money, even if it is your own, is seen as suspicious.
I was astonished when, during the Norwich by-election, my request to take several thousand pounds worth of cash out of my own bank account to pay various expenses was met with an insistence by the bank that I complete a form saying what it was for. Furious at being denied my own money, I wrote on the form that I needed the money for “Drink and bad women”. That sufficed to meet the stupid regulation.
The US government through aggressive – and in my view illegal – pressure on banks and financial services providers managed to cut off Wikileaks from almost all avenues of sources of international donation funding by individuals. You cannot trust governments to have the power to control all funds transfers. Governments will abuse that power.
Of course proceeds of crime should be seized. I have no problem with that. Stopping the crime in the first place would be better, but failing that you should track the money and seize it. But the way to do that is not to control everybody’s exchanges of value at all times. It is like asking me for proof I am not going to rob a bank every time I walk out of the house. It would make as much sense to ban mattresses, as stolen cash can be hidden under them, or cars, as stolen cash can be transported in them, as to close down internet transfer options because they might be used to transfer crooked cash.
Am I alone in worrying that the mainstream media’s reporting of this closure has involved simply repeating US government press releases, with no attempt at all to analyse what percentage of Liberty Reserve’s funds were actually criminal proceeds, and compare that to a mainstream bank?
It’s this kind of thing that I struggle with: ‘borrowing money or printing more bonds’. Isn’t printing more bonds the same as borrowing money? Government prints some paper with fancy writing on, calls them bonds and sells them to mainly banks for a term of 1, 5, 30 years and when they mature, buys them back at cost of bond plus interest.
In exchange for these bits of paper with fancy writing on the bank gives the government some other bits of paper with fancy writing on; banknotes – thesedays it’s their digital equivalent which the banks have created with some cunning, sleight of hand double entry book keeping.
My question is this, if government can create bonds and declare them valuable, why can’t they just create money and avoid the debt and the crippling interest burden this places on us tax payers. Surely what makes the bond good also makes the bank note good (or the digital equivalent in the treasury bank account).
http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/boya-deemarko/39/86b/1ba
Actor Boya Dee Marko’s linked in Profile. Recent performances include a role in “Wassup in Woolwich?”. Watch out for his new single “Fingers Flying Through The Air” which is the follow up to the huge hit “See A Man With His Head Chopped Off”.
The God of Capitalism is CAPITAL !
Anyone who holds sway at its entrance is akin to God, ask Fred the Shred ! Rosenfeld had access to £11.5b capital to buy Cadbury, and God left Somardale and decided for Poland instead.
I am aware of Liberty Reserve because it is well known for being used by cyber-criminals exposed by security experity Brian Krebs. I have been reading his blog for quite a long time and the name comes up again and again:
krebsonsecurity.com
@Ben Franklin,
If I remember correctly the last payment on the money borrowed from the US for WWII was made last year!
I think that was Fedup’s comment Indigo.
@ Mike
Surely the point is to make it look complicated and technical in order to baffle the ordinary folk? If the government simply created its own money everyone would see the absurdity of it and no one would trust this money spun from thin air.
By which I mean, of course, the whole point of the mumbo-jumbo is to conceal the truth about how money comes into being.
Mike,traditionaly the government issued bonds to pay it’s debts that were bought mainly by financial institutions (banks,insurance cos,pension funds etc).The rate of interest these institutions demanded depended on the percieved credit worthiness of the country.
Since the start of QE,the government has electronically created vast amounts of money which it has used to buy it’s own debts ie it has lent to itself.
It has done this in order to stimulate the economy.The reason QE is supposed to stimulate the economy is that as it buys its own debt it reduces the price of its ie the interest rate this is suppsed to force people who need income to invest in more risky assets eg shares,business enterprises etc. Secondly,it can run bigger deficits and therefore tax us less and enable us to spend more money.
So,if we just eloctronically print new money why bother paying tax at all,or lets start three new wars and build twenty five more hospitals why not?
The trouble is that creating new money must devalue it eventually ( if there is twice as much money chasing a fixed amount of goods you would expect the price to double),therefore we would expect inflation,and eventually people would not have faith in money.
Of course,nobody knows when this will happen,but if it does happen,it will certainly be the end of western democracies as we know them.
Julian Assange speaks of the monetary embargo that was imposed on Wikileaks.
Julian Assange on Meeting with Google, Responds to Anti-WikiLeaks Attacks from New Film to Finance
Thursday, May 30, 2013
http://www.zcommunications.org/julian-assange-on-meeting-with-google-responds-to-anti-wikileaks-attacks-from-new-film-to-finances-by-julian-assange
@Ben Franklin
Thanks.
@Fred
See answer to Ben above.
@Both
Sorry … head even more in the clouds than usual.
Indigo.5.58p.m.
The final payment to the US was made by Gordon Brown on the last day of business of 2006 and another payment on the same day cleared the debt to Canada.
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Britain_makes_final_World_War_II_debt_payments
Just signed this petition/campaign to educate Nike about compassion and social responsibility.
http://laborrights.org/stop-child-forced-labor/cotton-campaign/resources/appeal-to-nike-cut-ties-with-slave-cotton-companie
All money is funny, in one way or another, except when one doesn’t have any, repeat any, at all. And there are millions in absolute poverty, and well over a billion beautiful people in poverty in the World.
“The World Bank estimated 1.29 billion people were living in absolute poverty in 2008. Of these, about 400 million people in absolute poverty lived in India and 173 million people in China. In USA 1 in 5 children lives in poverty.[6] In terms of percentage of regional populations, sub-Saharan Africa at 47% had the highest incidence rate of absolute poverty in 2008. Between 1990 and 2010, about 663 million people moved above the absolute poverty level. Still, extreme poverty is a global challenge; it is observed in all parts of the world, including the developed economies.[7][8]”
I confess i have never really reflected very deeply and seriously on poverty — just something there at the the back of one’s mind, with a sense of compassion borne out of unfairness. But now i will read through this entry in wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty
As it comes up to dinner time, i consider myself lucky.
The biggest financial scandal, far and away, of the 21c is the money being spent on War and so-called ‘defence’ budgets. The amounts are grossly offensive. Nearly $200,000 being spent *every minute* in just Afghanistan at the moment *by the US alone*. I ask you, for what?!
Click here for the trillion-dollar-counter: http://costofwar.com
Add to that the spend by other ISAF members.
Next US debt = $ 17 trillion (of which over 1 trillion due to China!
“On April 2, 2013, debt held by the public was approximately $11.959 trillion or about 75% of GDP. Intragovernmental holdings stood at $4.846 trillion, giving a combined total public debt of $16.805 trillion.[4][5][5][6] As of January 2013, $5.6 trillion or approximately 47% of the debt held by the public was owned by foreign investors, the largest of which were the People’s Republic of China and Japan at just over $1.1 trillion each.[7]”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_of_the_United_States
The UK’s debt is GBP 1,400 billion, of which 35% due to foreign govts/investors.
Fight on!
” It is like asking me for proof I am not going to rob a bank every time I walk out of the house.”
Well… I’ve got to complete official forms to say that I’m NOT going to be using my vehicles on the roads, and failure to make such a declaration will result in my being prosecuted as if I had committed such an offence.
Likewise, we have to make that declaration for insurance now. That’s all part of SORN. I’m surprised they can get away with it – assumed guilty unless one declares otherwise, no proof required. I’m pushed to see where this principle has a legal basis.
Nice to see you back, Glenn.
“Simply repeating US government press releases” is the only form of journalism that’s still legal in the US.
This is only going to hurt.
It’s tragic the EU didn’t embrace Keynesian philosophy. Austerity does not work.
sorry. the link http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/05/eu-requires-spain-to-raise-vat.html
@Blegburnduddoo
Thanks. Thought that it was after that … must have lost 6 years!
Clearly my head isn’t working at all at the moment … called ‘Fedup’ ‘Fred’ …
Should give up posting until I’ve sorted it out …
Yes why are Pufed’s ZFW comments allowed to fester like bloated diapers leaking out of a bin bag and mine deleted. Eh, Mods Craig?
King of WelshNoir puts it very well in his two short posts at 6.30 / 31 today.
Ugonad
I delete offensive stuff when I see it but I don’t have time systematically to see all comments so some get through.
**Who rules our world** BBC Sucks O Cocks News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=p36-4GEqExc#!
Mark; I’ve taken your bait and laughed my arse off for 9 minutes.
So spot on and impromptu? It seemed off the top of his head.
Anyway, I’ve got an American ranter for you on the same topic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX03SJ_jumI
I am immediately struck by the hypocrisy of the authorities. It’s now well known that, during the latest financial crisis, in order to shore up capital for the banks, a whole lot of illegal money was allowed into the system.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009/dec/13/drug-money-banks-saved-un-cfief-claims
Not a secret. So now of course the banks see a threat: a rather neat way to use the internet to transfer money that could, in the long term, cut into the profits of the major players. So, what happens? They get their ‘muscle’ – taxpayer paid financial authorities – to bust the competition for money laundering. By which we mean ‘doing the same thing as the major players’. Of course, the main players laundered far larger amounts.
I confess, I personally had never heard of Liberty Reserve. Perhaps some of the busts were deserved. It’s just clear that laws no longer apply uniformly: some people are subject to the law, some people simply aren’t.
I come from a family here in the US that has never taken out a loan to buy an auto. Last time I bought a new Hondo ($25 K) I wrote out a check from my personal savings. I was forced to fill out one very long form questioning my personal finances that I was not laundering money. These regulations (I guess in the UK as well as the US) have been set up to track people who resist going into debt.
There is also another thing that the US treasury has done to make it difficult to live in a world of cash. The largest US denomination is the $100 bill. That has not changed in half a century. Fifty years ago that was the equivalent of $10 dollar bill. It is very difficult to carry around $10 k in cash today whereas 50 years back a normal wallet would carry the equivalent without a bulge.
The state and banks are trying to rope us into their plastic world with its continuous surveillance and surcharges.
Craig, sometimes you see offense in something connected to faith, where you don’t see any offense in what you have yourself written.
Fedup
You accuse me of racism because I have mentioned my extreme dislike of being spied on by my Muslim brothers. Those who try to pry and pick on others should remember the saying: “When you point one finger, there are three fingers pointing back to you.”
When they point the finger at me, I point out their three fingers pointing back at themselves. That’s not racism , that’s self-defence. How do you make people aware of their offensive behaviour? lie down and die with your feet in the air like a cockroach?
I wage my own war of passive resistance to the banksters. I refuse to borrow money and will not use a credit card again. I have a debit card but never use it and rather resent the annual fees.
I wish we could all go to the bank tomorrow and take out our money in cash then put it in a box under our beds. That’d fix em once and for all!
When you see the govt in Cyprus raiding ordinary peoples’ savings it makes you wonder what’s the point, especially when they can only pay us derisory amounts of interest.
I know illegal money is laundered through banks but it always will be – the big players will always find a way and pass on extra costs to their ‘consumers’.